Congo rebel leader Ntaganda convicted of crimes against humanity

The Hague, Jul 8 : The International Criminal Court has convicted Congolese former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC found Ntaganda guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in Congo's mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002-2003. To make its decision, the court reviewed all the evidence submitted during the trial, including documents, eyewitnesses and insiders, ICC said in a statement. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing and could face a life sentence.

Ntaganda, whose cruelty and violence earned him the nickname 'the Terminator', was responsible for the rape and sexual slavery of underage girls, for recruiting troops under the age of 15, and for personally killing a Roman Catholic priest, the court said.

Ntaganda, who was born in 1973 in Rwanda, but brought up in the DRC, has been accused by UN investigators of amassing considerable wealth by running a large extortion empire in North Kivu, manning rogue checkpoints and taxing the area's many mines. (UNI)